Saturday, February 16, 2013

Conflict of interest among Shahbag protesters

Sat, 16 Feb, 2013 12:03:41 AM

A conflict of interest has been observed
among the protesters at Shahbag between the Chatro League, the other student
organizations of the 14 party alliance and the bloggers leading the protest
movement that has been demanding the hanging of Abdul Kader Mollah and all accused
standing trial for war crimes at the International crimes tribunal. This
conflict of interest has been centred on the decision to limit the daily time
frame of the movement from 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm instead of the whole day.

Bloggers along with the Chatra Union had been in the favour
of continuing the protest movements without any compromise or delay until all
war criminals were brought to justice ( through capital punishment). However,
student body of the ruling party Awami League, the Chhatro League,student body of Jatiya Somajtantrik Dal (JaSoD),
the JaSoD-Chhhatre League, student party of the Workers party, the Chatro
Moitri, were all in favour of limitimg the movement from 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm,
keeping public convenience in mind.

This conflict of interest had resulted in mike grabbing
incidents between the bloggers and the Chhatra League upto 11 pm (the time of
writing this report).

In other news, a blogger was found dead in Mirpur last
night. Bloggers have claimed that he had been murdered. They have accused the Chatro League of secret
collaboration with Jamaat. They vowed to continue their movement until all the
war criminals had been given capital punishment.

A minute of silence
has been observed at Shahbag in memory of the slain blogger. Protesters shouted
slogans of “One Rajib is in our hearts, lakhs of Rajib’s are at Shahbag”

Many bloggers and Chhatra Union leaders have expressed
doubts on Dr. Imran H Sarker (Convener of the Blogger and Online Activists
Forum), calling him an agent of the Chhatra League. A group of bloggers were
seen to have posted derogatory and accusatory remarks on Dr. Sarker at a
facebook page “প্রজন্মচত্তর /Projonmo Chottor”.

Later at 11:00 pm, a group of bloggers decided against the
advice and decisions of the Chhatra League and have decided to continue their
movement without any time limits.